Had a chance to spend two days with a friend at his rented cottage (Sept. 18 & 19). This lake is one I am quite familiar with, and fish fairly regularly, and is located south west of Ottawa.
Arrived on Monday to gale force winds, and no sign of the +30 temps. with humidity they were calling for. Fronts were coming through, and according to my buddy, the previous two days were fairly tough. I figured we had our work cut out for us..
Started working some shallow cover, mainly pads and wood. This time of year I find a lot of decent largie just snug up or hovering over any sort of wood, be it a tree, stump or even a branch. We got into a bunch of 2 and 3-pounders on this pattern, with many of the fish coming from water between 1 and 4- feet deep.
My buddy got a nice fish that went close to 4lbs, on a flipping jig off a laydown.
Day one ended with heavy rain starting around 9pm, and continued right through the night, and into the morning.
Woke up to a fine drizzle, but warmer temps. and light wind. By the time we threw down a hearty breakfast, the time was 9:30am, and the rain had ended and the sun had come out to play. Loaded up the boat, and headed to two small islands just out from the cottage, with a mixture of wood, rock and pads surrounding them.
Second flip off the morning got me a decent three pounder. Actually, within the first 50 yards, I had three fish in the boat. All fish came on flipping jigs, with one falling for a Title SHot jig teamed up with a lizard.
Here are a few shots..
Headed into lunch around 1pm, but decided to flip the three boat docks/moored boats neighbouring the cottage. My buddy missed a fish on a tube on the first dock, and missed on the hookset on the last dock. I flipped in after him, and missed the same fish on a jig! (He had the bait, just didn't get the hooks in him.) I did see another fish of equal size shoot out after he got off, so the mental note was made...lol
After lunch, we decide to hit that same dock again. With a flipping jig, my bud gets a decent 3lber. While he fights it, I flip in and hook the other fish. A flippin' double header!! Pretty cool!!
Clouds and storm-like weather continued to roll in all afternoon. Wanting to get out of the wind, we decided to fish some easterly back bays and coves. I knew a decent spot I hadn't hit for two years, so off we go for the short ride to it. We arrived to calm waters and a heightened sense of success. This small cove had nice weed, rock, docks and wood. Bingo. We pound four or five fish in the first 20 minutes, from a variety of structure.
I spot a tree branch sitting beside four single pads. A twenty foot flip, and a decent fish sucks in the jig immediately. He was sitting right on that twig....like I say, wood really holds them. (start the foreshadowing..)
Here he is..
As we make our way out of the cove, we spot a secondary cove that just spelt BIG fish. It has a rock perimeter, sparse wood on a sand and weed bottom. Most spots are in two feet or less of water, but, if our pattern was on, this would be "it".
Tim takes a flip to a series of two or three tree branches/trunks. He misses a fish, but we don't get a look at it. We don't think it was that big.
I take a flip about 6 feet to the left of that, where a small birch branch and trunk lay. Before the jig hits bottom, I see the fish suck it in. I rear back on the rod, and immediately tell Tim to grab the net. I knew she was a big one.
Get her in the net and put her on the scale - 4lbs 15oz. One ounce shy of 5lbs! I thought she was over, but the scale never lies. Still, she is my biggest of this season (I have two 4.5lbers so far..), so I was extremely happy.
***Just calibrated the scale, comparing a fixed weight on both a postal scale and the fish scale. Seems that the fish scale is 1.6 ounces low. So, the fish was in actual fact 5lbs 0.6oz ***
What beautiful colours on her...
We got this fish around 4:30 in the afternoon.
Headed after that to some rocky shorelines to try for smallies, but came up empty handed. We did get a few more fish off of wood, but none pushing this size...
So, all in all, another great couple of days on the water. The fish are really starting to fatten up now, and are still extremely shallow. Water temp. was 65 degrees both days...
Now, a few more weeks to put a six in the boat!!
Good Fishing,
Justin
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